Company points such as Craptic, Turbine points are an imersion killer for me. I simple refuse to play a game, where you can be a " VIP" for a monthly fee plus having a cash shop selling things like potions aso. RMT doesn't belong in our genre, fact.
I asked someone how played it till yesterday and she told me, this annoying store icon is also included into pop ups such as "buy more inventory slots" you know, stuff like that. Mark my words this model will work for games like DDO but in the longrun hurt Lotro.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play." "Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
The only people on the free model that really have any rights to access content are those people who paid points for those areas.
I don't see how that is any more distinct than someone that bought the box.
F2P players that buy the area buy the ability to access that area, just as someone that bought the box back when it was P2P bought the ability to play the game for a month.
Turbine could very well rejigger it if they chose to without affecting anyone's "rights" - as you say, it would be a terminally stupid business move, but I don't see how it's any different.
I agree. Maybe some one can come up with a new UI that doesn't include that gold coin. Even Cryptic is more subtle.
I'm sort of thinking that maybe when we get into Rohan/Gondor territory that there might be new starter zones as theoretically they are more 'civilized' then the North where we are now.
As a free player in the realm, currently have a 26 dwarf champ. Now I have unlocked Lone Lands as a pack, and the story seems interesting, but not enough for me to pay actual money. Still, its a fun diversion where the deeds sytem is useful for gaining points, but for me the things that should be free are not.
Horses, get a free one then gotta pay 195 points and 500 silver just to get the simple horse. While most people will have the points by 15, there doesn't seem to be much choice in spending the points on a horse, or opening up the next area.
So as a f2p player, you have several choices, none of which are remotely fun. Grind the deed system in each newbie area (elf, hobbit, etc.) to gather all the points necessary to get the next quest content, even though by then most things are gray. I have gotten Bree almost finished and dwarf was about half done. Its time consuming and have already hit my gold cap of 2 gold (unlock for 495 points to raise to 32), have no horse currently, altho have gotten to do skirmishes which are interesting grind battles.
Suffice to say, I could see the game picking up a few new subs, but for people doing the free experience, the thrill will go away soon.
The end-game content currently is non existant as there is no way to see Frodo throw the ring into the volcano at mount doom. The cap is 50 for free, 65 for sub. And most of the well known lands from the movie are currently not available. So when you hit the 65 cap what is there to do? Not much. Grind legend items, a few raids, monster-play (which is limited to 1 zone), craft and basically re-roll.
The game is unfinished, prolly should not have gone f2p with no current end game content and frankly is a pay-to-play game with a tease of some freedom. As the author stated, its a longer trial game, with a cash shop.
There is so much misinformation here.
There is quite a bit of End game content but if one is a hardcore player they might exhaust it by doing it 24/7. There are raids, There are smaller group raids, there are skirmishes and there is monster play. I realize that some of the more social things might not be construed by some as "end game" but there is music, role play, festivals, etc.
Game finished? It's an mmo. They are never finished.
And I don't want a middle earth the size of what we have now that includes the entire map. I want a huge world that will eventually have the entire map. Putting in everything up to Mordor is just not possible and if they are going to fill it with content.
And I think you have things backward. Don't "grind" the deed system. Go out and explore and as you kill things eventually you will fill up your deeds.
If you set out to just "max your deeds' then of course that is not going to be fun. I've levelled and completed deeds by simply exploring, taking a few quests and enjoying myself.
my sense is your playstyle doesn't fit the game.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
People that complain that it's not truly F2P, as you have to shell out cash at some point, crack me up. The developers have to make money somehow, so of course they want you to buy stuff.
This also makes me giggle. As I've said in many of Mr. Aihoshi's articles which are absurdly biased towards the cash shop style of games, these games are NOT "Free To Play". They (the developers/publishers) have to make money somehow. And they've fooled quite a few people (including Mr. Aihoshi) into believing the "Free to Play" mantra. As noted in this article, this is a free "trial" more than a transition to "Free To Play". LOTRO is not free to play in any meaningful way. To get a modicum amount of enjoyment, you'll either have to grind an absurd amount, or pay (and you'll end up paying more than a subscriber does if you REALLY want to play the game). Simple.
Nice write up, aside from the (already corrected) boo boo about Quest packs. As for grinding, I have to laugh at people who think you'd need to grind "an absurd amount" to get anywhere meaningful. In the 3 weeks since launch, I've attempted to see what character I'd like as a main...bringing 3 to 25 and 6 to their mid teens. This 'experimentation' has netted me 1700 points. Now granted, I did have 2 weeks vacation and spent a fair bit of time in game, but no where did I 'grind' (except to finish a few slayer deeds ). Remember - even as free, people have access to 2 characters per server (15) Completing even say Ered Luin (2 days done casually) 10 times is 1300 points. It's not perfect, but the option is there - and I like these options far better than any other "FTP" game out there.
The only people on the free model that really have any rights to access content are those people who paid points for those areas.
I don't see how that is any more distinct than someone that bought the box.
F2P players that buy the area buy the ability to access that area, just as someone that bought the box back when it was P2P bought the ability to play the game for a month.
Turbine could very well rejigger it if they chose to without affecting anyone's "rights" - as you say, it would be a terminally stupid business move, but I don't see how it's any different.
It's different, because when you and I bought those expansions, we bought them knowing that we'd have to pay a subscription in order to access the content.
When you buy the content with points now, you're buying it under the F2P model. You're paying points for something so you can have access to it with or without a sub.
I agree that it would be a dumb biz move on their part to take what they offered away(which is why I said it), but it IS different.
Not much point in nit-picking it all. My point is and has always been, players DO NOT own the content.
When will these disgustingly rote arguments about what is and what is not F2P just end. If you can download, install, and run the game, create an account and access the game world, and experience the content of the game, all without paying anything, the game IS F2P. Whether or not you got ALL of that excellent FREE content you feel that your bloated ego deserved is a moot point. The global economy crashed for the same reason that you worthless bags of garbage wail on and on over a game, because you feel ENTITLED to something which you have NO right to.
Get over it, you are entitled to nothing in this world, nor the virtual one which you shed your tears over.
The end-game content currently is non existant as there is no way to see Frodo throw the ring into the volcano at mount doom. The cap is 50 for free, 65 for sub. And most of the well known lands from the movie are currently not available. So when you hit the 65 cap what is there to do? Not much. Grind legend items, a few raids, monster-play (which is limited to 1 zone), craft and basically re-roll.
The game is unfinished, prolly should not have gone f2p with no current end game content and frankly is a pay-to-play game with a tease of some freedom. As the author stated, its a longer trial game, with a cash shop.
I hate to point this out, but you're complaints here are invalid. First and foremost, LotRO is NOT based off the movies. In a few instances, visual cues were taken from the movies, but the storyline and progression was taken from the books. Because the series ended with the Lord of the RIngs trilogy, throwing the ring into Mount Doom would be the very end of the game. Anything after that would have to be completely made up with the help of Tolkien, and as such, would not do his work justice. But this is a MMO. It can't just end. The game would never thrive if you basically limited yourself to never coming out with new areas or expansions. Plus, the game DOES have end-game content. Lots of it, actually. Just because it doesn't end where YOU want it to end doesn't mean it doesn't have an end-game.
However, I do agree with the "tease of some freedom" sentiment. But then thats the misnomer of "free to play"... it isn't really free. It offers players to play the game with more options of how to pay, and gives a decent trial for new players wanting to try it out. For me, I enjoy it. I don't have a ton of time to play MMO's as is, but I still really enjoy them. So, for me, paying $15 for a monthly sub just isn't worth the price for how little time I have to play. However, since I can log in anytime I want to now, even if the last time I played was over a week ago, I still can without having to fork over all the cash. I just pay once I get to a new area. Believe me, the way I play, I will end up paying a lot less than a sub, and then after a long while, will have opened up all the content and Still not be paying a monthly fee.
For me, its a win-win, but I'm not a hardcore gamer...
"Essentially if you own the three expansions already, Lord of the Rings Online really is subscription free and only a minority of features or disabled for the player"
Ok, first of all, there had only been 2 expansion so far: Moria and Mirkwood (not 3).
Secondly, this is incorrect. If you own both Angmar, Moria, and Mirkwood, and you wish to play free (being a Premier player), you would still need to buy the quest packs between 20-50.
" those that own the game, but do not actively subscribe, are “premium players” and therefore do not need to buy content they already own." - this is the totally incorrect part.
Please try to focus on giving correct info, or you will be flamed by haters. The game is great, and I agree it's still the best option to stay VIP and be subbed/lifetimer.
DB
Nicely said. I think this pretty obviously points out the author's lack of research into this piece. It's pretty hard to miss this if you have taken a formerly subbed account and cancelled the sub. Hell, you can't even ride through one of the zones 20-50 zones without getting a Store pop-up to let you know what you need to do to buy the quest pack.
It is good to see the low level areas teeming with life again. However, it is a shame they are not 'teaming' with life again as before f2p most of the group content in the lower zones was removed in an effort to make it easier, in an environment where most players had at least one character at the cap, for players to level up.
That being said, I'm glad to see many new and returning players enjoying themselves in Eriador.
This.
Some of these writers are slipping. It's like half of them don't even play the games they're talking about anymore, they just take assumption and spread it around as fact. Tsk, tsk.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
As a free player in the realm, currently have a 26 dwarf champ. Now I have unlocked Lone Lands as a pack, and the story seems interesting, but not enough for me to pay actual money. Still, its a fun diversion where the deeds sytem is useful for gaining points, but for me the things that should be free are not.
Horses, get a free one then gotta pay 195 points and 500 silver just to get the simple horse. While most people will have the points by 15, there doesn't seem to be much choice in spending the points on a horse, or opening up the next area.
So as a f2p player, you have several choices, none of which are remotely fun. Grind the deed system in each newbie area (elf, hobbit, etc.) to gather all the points necessary to get the next quest content, even though by then most things are gray. I have gotten Bree almost finished and dwarf was about half done. Its time consuming and have already hit my gold cap of 2 gold (unlock for 495 points to raise to 32), have no horse currently, altho have gotten to do skirmishes which are interesting grind battles.
Suffice to say, I could see the game picking up a few new subs, but for people doing the free experience, the thrill will go away soon.
The end-game content currently is non existant as there is no way to see Frodo throw the ring into the volcano at mount doom. The cap is 50 for free, 65 for sub. And most of the well known lands from the movie are currently not available. So when you hit the 65 cap what is there to do? Not much. Grind legend items, a few raids, monster-play (which is limited to 1 zone), craft and basically re-roll.
The game is unfinished, prolly should not have gone f2p with no current end game content and frankly is a pay-to-play game with a tease of some freedom. As the author stated, its a longer trial game, with a cash shop.
With a level 26 guardian and you are already saying there is no end-game? Well, that's what i call a biased view.
There's a ton of end-game instances, skirmishes, events, etc.
I think the Turbine F2P model is the best currently available. You actually can play the majority of the game totally free if you don't mind a lot of grinding to unlock everything.
I think the best compromise is to buy the MoM expansion for under $10 and then play the game as premium after your month of VIP expires. The one-time payment gives you a huge boost of features that would cost a lot more if bought individually and you get to keep a lot of the extras that you gain while VIP, like extra bags, riding skill, etc.
Well there was so many half truths in this article one had to wonder who is being paid to write this article.
First off, lets get this straight the real folks who were winners are those who have vip access. Otherwise at some point your going to either have to spend turbine points, or pay to unlock things.
The level 20 areas-50 have to be unlocked even for a premium player. The only folks who don't have to unlock are the VIP's.
Now lets take a look at the low level areas, and go over to the general discussion chat over in the lotro forums. Have you all seen how many folks are upset. Seams the community took a downer according to some folks. I just think its more the same as its been in the past few years, just more of it now that there are more folks playing.
This game is not free to play in any term. I prefer the term "Free to Log in" and pay for unlocks, or subs.
Some folks claim that you don't have to pay, if your smart you can do the deeds and game play to earn enough TP to pay for the unlocks, however I think that is more horse hockey than anything else.
Lotro use to be a great game, it is now a cash grab pure and simple. If you love it then by all means play it, however I will not be spending any TP at all. Even the free TP that I earned being a lifter.
There is nothing in the store that I would buy, but I am sure plenty of other folks will find plenty to spend TP on.
1) I remember doing two of the killtasks from that outpost south of Bree and the correct creatures were not popping up much even with me mass killing everything I came across. The reason was there was 1 other guy on those same exact kill task and there wasn't enough of the creatures to support us both doing them. In fact a couple of times we both ran to try and hit the creature first when we saw one spawn. So to have tons of new F2P people all doing the same killtasks would of been an absolute nightmare.
I stopped playing about 2 weeks ago, when I realised there were not enough things to kill for everybody! I might try again in the future, but with so many other games to play, who knows when!!!
I jumped in to check it out again and I'm loving it. I came from STO so I dont expect much from an MMO anymore. I have an awesome rig so seeing this game with the visuals all turned up is awesome. I find it refreshing that they have a good crafting system, player housing, raid content, purpose for kinships and all the other things that STO lacks. I plan on subbing and picking up the expansions this weekend when I have time. Going F2P worked for getting my money!
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
What I have found worst of the switch to the ftp hybred model is that it seems at least from my personal experience of rolling a new character on 4 different servers is that most of the ftp people are nothing but trolls and as has been called on other threads the dregs of the gaming population.
The non stop vulgarity and racial/homophobic slurs are trully sickening. I have had to turn off all the standard chat channels just to keep from rage qutting the game entirely. Even my days of playing wow were never this bad not to mention all the kill and resourse stealing.
I find it very sad that there are that many people with nothing better to do then make throw away accounts just to do everything in their power to disrupt the gaming experience of everyone around them.
I hope that this trend goes away over time for if this the type of players that are going to be taking over lotro my time in middle earth is over for good.
fuí beneficiado para poder jugar LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.
I went to play LOTRO benefit at no cost at first. And frankly I think is the best, used to track those who want to pay for better things. There will be people who have multiple characters without pay but the important thing is the people who love the game and now wants to pay. We will defend LOTRO forever.
( In Spanish)
fuí beneficiado para poder jugar LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.
What I have found worst of the switch to the ftp hybred model is that it seems at least from my personal experience of rolling a new character on 4 different servers is that most of the ftp people are nothing but trolls and as has been called on other threads the dregs of the gaming population.
The non stop vulgarity and racial/homophobic slurs are trully sickening. I have had to turn off all the standard chat channels just to keep from rage qutting the game entirely. Even my days of playing wow were never this bad not to mention all the kill and resourse stealing.
I find it very sad that there are that many people with nothing better to do then make throw away accounts just to do everything in their power to disrupt the gaming experience of everyone around them.
I hope that this trend goes away over time for if this the type of players that are going to be taking over lotro my time in middle earth is over for good.
Well, you know, when people are creating alts they don't give a shit about to grind out TP to buy quest packs that came with the box they originally bought but they now have to buy again, I dont think they much care whether anyone else is annoyed since they most likely don't even play on those servers normally, and those characters will be deleted shortly anyway to amke new ones to grind more TP.
Originally posted by DonnieBrasco
"Essentially if you own the three expansions already, Lord of the Rings Online really is subscription free and only a minority of features or disabled for the player"
Ok, first of all, there had only been 2 expansion so far: Moria and Mirkwood (not 3).
Secondly, this is incorrect. If you own both Angmar, Moria, and Mirkwood, and you wish to play free (being a Premier player), you would still need to buy the quest packs between 20-50.
" those that own the game, but do not actively subscribe, are “premium players” and therefore do not need to buy content they already own." - this is the totally incorrect part.
Please try to focus on giving correct info, or you will be flamed by haters. The game is great, and I agree it's still the best option to stay VIP and be subbed/lifetimer.
DB
I agree. Guess we have yet one more newbie writer who doesn't even research the topic of his article. Yay.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
The only winner in the long run in "Free to Play" is the company running the game.
Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.
Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.
You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.
They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.
The only winner in the long run in "Free to Play" is the company running the game.
Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.
Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.
You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.
They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.
I can kill a boss that has 3x the hit points I do, but some of them have 9x the hit points I do and obviously these will not be solo.
I like the game update so far and have not used one of my 4500 store points yet. I see no reason to.
Comments
Company points such as Craptic, Turbine points are an imersion killer for me. I simple refuse to play a game, where you can be a " VIP" for a monthly fee plus having a cash shop selling things like potions aso. RMT doesn't belong in our genre, fact.
I asked someone how played it till yesterday and she told me, this annoying store icon is also included into pop ups such as "buy more inventory slots" you know, stuff like that. Mark my words this model will work for games like DDO but in the longrun hurt Lotro.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
I don't see how that is any more distinct than someone that bought the box.
F2P players that buy the area buy the ability to access that area, just as someone that bought the box back when it was P2P bought the ability to play the game for a month.
Turbine could very well rejigger it if they chose to without affecting anyone's "rights" - as you say, it would be a terminally stupid business move, but I don't see how it's any different.
http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/index.php?s=866f212dfed558a5bb16f0ad374e0e76&cid=65&dp=0&sh=full&so=desc&sb=lastupdate
Has lots of UI skins that make the store button less pronounced.
There is so much misinformation here.
There is quite a bit of End game content but if one is a hardcore player they might exhaust it by doing it 24/7. There are raids, There are smaller group raids, there are skirmishes and there is monster play. I realize that some of the more social things might not be construed by some as "end game" but there is music, role play, festivals, etc.
Game finished? It's an mmo. They are never finished.
And I don't want a middle earth the size of what we have now that includes the entire map. I want a huge world that will eventually have the entire map. Putting in everything up to Mordor is just not possible and if they are going to fill it with content.
And I think you have things backward. Don't "grind" the deed system. Go out and explore and as you kill things eventually you will fill up your deeds.
If you set out to just "max your deeds' then of course that is not going to be fun. I've levelled and completed deeds by simply exploring, taking a few quests and enjoying myself.
my sense is your playstyle doesn't fit the game.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
This also makes me giggle. As I've said in many of Mr. Aihoshi's articles which are absurdly biased towards the cash shop style of games, these games are NOT "Free To Play". They (the developers/publishers) have to make money somehow. And they've fooled quite a few people (including Mr. Aihoshi) into believing the "Free to Play" mantra. As noted in this article, this is a free "trial" more than a transition to "Free To Play". LOTRO is not free to play in any meaningful way. To get a modicum amount of enjoyment, you'll either have to grind an absurd amount, or pay (and you'll end up paying more than a subscriber does if you REALLY want to play the game). Simple.
Nice write up, aside from the (already corrected) boo boo about Quest packs. As for grinding, I have to laugh at people who think you'd need to grind "an absurd amount" to get anywhere meaningful. In the 3 weeks since launch, I've attempted to see what character I'd like as a main...bringing 3 to 25 and 6 to their mid teens. This 'experimentation' has netted me 1700 points. Now granted, I did have 2 weeks vacation and spent a fair bit of time in game, but no where did I 'grind' (except to finish a few slayer deeds ). Remember - even as free, people have access to 2 characters per server (15) Completing even say Ered Luin (2 days done casually) 10 times is 1300 points. It's not perfect, but the option is there - and I like these options far better than any other "FTP" game out there.
It's different, because when you and I bought those expansions, we bought them knowing that we'd have to pay a subscription in order to access the content.
When you buy the content with points now, you're buying it under the F2P model. You're paying points for something so you can have access to it with or without a sub.
I agree that it would be a dumb biz move on their part to take what they offered away(which is why I said it), but it IS different.
Not much point in nit-picking it all. My point is and has always been, players DO NOT own the content.
When will these disgustingly rote arguments about what is and what is not F2P just end. If you can download, install, and run the game, create an account and access the game world, and experience the content of the game, all without paying anything, the game IS F2P. Whether or not you got ALL of that excellent FREE content you feel that your bloated ego deserved is a moot point. The global economy crashed for the same reason that you worthless bags of garbage wail on and on over a game, because you feel ENTITLED to something which you have NO right to.
Get over it, you are entitled to nothing in this world, nor the virtual one which you shed your tears over.
Doc
I hate to point this out, but you're complaints here are invalid. First and foremost, LotRO is NOT based off the movies. In a few instances, visual cues were taken from the movies, but the storyline and progression was taken from the books. Because the series ended with the Lord of the RIngs trilogy, throwing the ring into Mount Doom would be the very end of the game. Anything after that would have to be completely made up with the help of Tolkien, and as such, would not do his work justice. But this is a MMO. It can't just end. The game would never thrive if you basically limited yourself to never coming out with new areas or expansions. Plus, the game DOES have end-game content. Lots of it, actually. Just because it doesn't end where YOU want it to end doesn't mean it doesn't have an end-game.
However, I do agree with the "tease of some freedom" sentiment. But then thats the misnomer of "free to play"... it isn't really free. It offers players to play the game with more options of how to pay, and gives a decent trial for new players wanting to try it out. For me, I enjoy it. I don't have a ton of time to play MMO's as is, but I still really enjoy them. So, for me, paying $15 for a monthly sub just isn't worth the price for how little time I have to play. However, since I can log in anytime I want to now, even if the last time I played was over a week ago, I still can without having to fork over all the cash. I just pay once I get to a new area. Believe me, the way I play, I will end up paying a lot less than a sub, and then after a long while, will have opened up all the content and Still not be paying a monthly fee.
For me, its a win-win, but I'm not a hardcore gamer...
Nicely said. I think this pretty obviously points out the author's lack of research into this piece. It's pretty hard to miss this if you have taken a formerly subbed account and cancelled the sub. Hell, you can't even ride through one of the zones 20-50 zones without getting a Store pop-up to let you know what you need to do to buy the quest pack.
This.
Some of these writers are slipping. It's like half of them don't even play the games they're talking about anymore, they just take assumption and spread it around as fact. Tsk, tsk.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
With a level 26 guardian and you are already saying there is no end-game? Well, that's what i call a biased view.
There's a ton of end-game instances, skirmishes, events, etc.
Don't let anyone be fooled by this post.
I think the Turbine F2P model is the best currently available. You actually can play the majority of the game totally free if you don't mind a lot of grinding to unlock everything.
I think the best compromise is to buy the MoM expansion for under $10 and then play the game as premium after your month of VIP expires. The one-time payment gives you a huge boost of features that would cost a lot more if bought individually and you get to keep a lot of the extras that you gain while VIP, like extra bags, riding skill, etc.
*In before Philby*
This doesn't actually bother me and is easily ignored. It also allows me faster access to the store when I need something.
Dont know about it I left before the F2P started, but ive seen pictures. Glad you jumped in to defend it though, it shows your paying attention.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Well there was so many half truths in this article one had to wonder who is being paid to write this article.
First off, lets get this straight the real folks who were winners are those who have vip access. Otherwise at some point your going to either have to spend turbine points, or pay to unlock things.
The level 20 areas-50 have to be unlocked even for a premium player. The only folks who don't have to unlock are the VIP's.
Now lets take a look at the low level areas, and go over to the general discussion chat over in the lotro forums. Have you all seen how many folks are upset. Seams the community took a downer according to some folks. I just think its more the same as its been in the past few years, just more of it now that there are more folks playing.
This game is not free to play in any term. I prefer the term "Free to Log in" and pay for unlocks, or subs.
Some folks claim that you don't have to pay, if your smart you can do the deeds and game play to earn enough TP to pay for the unlocks, however I think that is more horse hockey than anything else.
Lotro use to be a great game, it is now a cash grab pure and simple. If you love it then by all means play it, however I will not be spending any TP at all. Even the free TP that I earned being a lifter.
There is nothing in the store that I would buy, but I am sure plenty of other folks will find plenty to spend TP on.
Not actually defending it...just giving my opinion. I could do without it, but it's there, so I just ignore it for the most part. It's easily ignored.
I stopped playing about 2 weeks ago, when I realised there were not enough things to kill for everybody! I might try again in the future, but with so many other games to play, who knows when!!!
I jumped in to check it out again and I'm loving it. I came from STO so I dont expect much from an MMO anymore. I have an awesome rig so seeing this game with the visuals all turned up is awesome. I find it refreshing that they have a good crafting system, player housing, raid content, purpose for kinships and all the other things that STO lacks. I plan on subbing and picking up the expansions this weekend when I have time. Going F2P worked for getting my money!
What I have found worst of the switch to the ftp hybred model is that it seems at least from my personal experience of rolling a new character on 4 different servers is that most of the ftp people are nothing but trolls and as has been called on other threads the dregs of the gaming population.
The non stop vulgarity and racial/homophobic slurs are trully sickening. I have had to turn off all the standard chat channels just to keep from rage qutting the game entirely. Even my days of playing wow were never this bad not to mention all the kill and resourse stealing.
I find it very sad that there are that many people with nothing better to do then make throw away accounts just to do everything in their power to disrupt the gaming experience of everyone around them.
I hope that this trend goes away over time for if this the type of players that are going to be taking over lotro my time in middle earth is over for good.
fuí beneficiado para poder jugar LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.
I went to play LOTRO benefit at no cost at first. And frankly I think is the best, used to track those who want to pay for better things. There will be people who have multiple characters without pay but the important thing is the people who love the game and now wants to pay. We will defend LOTRO forever.
( In Spanish)
fuí beneficiado para poder jugar LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.
Well, you know, when people are creating alts they don't give a shit about to grind out TP to buy quest packs that came with the box they originally bought but they now have to buy again, I dont think they much care whether anyone else is annoyed since they most likely don't even play on those servers normally, and those characters will be deleted shortly anyway to amke new ones to grind more TP.
I agree. Guess we have yet one more newbie writer who doesn't even research the topic of his article. Yay.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
The only winner in the long run in "Free to Play" is the company running the game.
Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.
Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.
You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.
They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I can kill a boss that has 3x the hit points I do, but some of them have 9x the hit points I do and obviously these will not be solo.
I like the game update so far and have not used one of my 4500 store points yet. I see no reason to.